John Hiden

Share via

John Hiden, historian of Germany and the Baltic States, lecturing at the Estonian Foreign Ministry, Tallinn

Last updated at 12:01AM, September 19 2012

Influential historian of Germany and Eastern Europe who helped to shape UK foreign policy in the Baltic States in the post-Soviet era

John Hiden was a historian of Germany and the Baltic States. As the latter made their transition to independence, he contributed to British foreign policy. After the end of the Cold War, he participated in discussions about minority rights in Europe.

Hiden produced two lasting interpretations of interwar German history, The Weimar Republic (1974) and Germany and Europe, 1919-39 (1977). In an important article in 1978 he collaborated with Paul Dukes to identify similarities between Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. He translated Martin Broszat’s classic The Hitler State (1981). With John Farquharson, he wrote Explaining Hitler’s Germany (1983) which (like